Hobbies / Books   (Gardening, walking, books, films, theatre etc.)

VG - My dad uses them to make red currant jelly and to take the currants from the stalk he holds one end of the stalk and uses an ordinary table fork and slides it down the stalk. I have never tried to freeze them. The "Canario" toms are doing well, plenty of flowers and quite a few have set.
T of M - As I understand it, Bitter Pit is a condition rather than a disease. Of all that I have read about it there are many possible causes, but the main cause that all seem to agree on is a shortage of calcium. Having said that I have read that even on calcium laden ground apple trees can still suffer from it. It is then caused by other factors such as not enough water, not enough iron in the soil, bad pruning, damaged bark - the list seems endless. Last year I tried spraying the tree with calcium only to find out that on my variety it makes the leaves go brown at the edges. I didn't read the small print until too late oops. The apples are still edible - just have to peel them first.